Weekends in Syktyvkar Vol. 4

When you happen to arrive at the local bakery just as a fresh delivery is coming in, you know it's going to be a great weekend. The goods aren't wrapped, but instead carted in on wooden slats and tossed into wooden crates, where Tyler caught one before it even officially hit the shelves. Needless to say, we had a pretty good lunch that day.

In other news, the snow has been melting and the city is gearing up for "The Great Melt." (That's what I've named it.) The sidewalks are being hacked away at the the streets are receiving a similar treatment. For a couple of days there were mountains of broken up snow/ice. Tyler stood next to a pile for scale. The lines in the chunks show the different snowfalls and freezings we had over the course of winter.

Since it has been warming up, we thought we'd better accept our friend's invitation to go skiing, and we're do glad we did. For about $6 two people can rent skis, boots, and poles. Not bad.

Five of us skied into the forest for a leisurely 5km run.

We passed a group of huskies that were very hard for me to resist running over to, but with skis on and my group gliding into the distance, I carried on and enjoyed the trip, stopping every now and again for some action shots.

About 3km into our adventure, we stopped for some delicious homemade lemon tea, thanks to my student, Zina (who also brought blini to the conversation class later that day!!). Lisa passed out gingerbread cookies which were the perfect dose of sweet sustenance that we needed out in the snow. Olesya discussed Russian grammar with Tyler.

Don't mind if I do.

After a brief pause and a couple of selfies, we skied on.

It was a blissful morning spent with good company in an idyllic setting. Tyler and I are both keen on getting in a lot more skiing before the snow is no more and before we head to Norway for Easter where there will undoubtedly be skiing to be had on a daily basis.